I am planing my first trip to Kentucky in two weeks and plan to go to as many distillerys as time will allow

But what really got me excited was heaven hill is offering a half day tour. Their website states that they will begin doing it in March of this year but I was wondering if anyone knows anymore about it. It cost 50. 00 a person so I figuire that if everyone elses tour if free then this one should be damn good for fifty bucks and I love Evan Williams

if anyone has already gone on this tour let me know how it is otherwise I will be reporting on it my self in two weeks

I have visited Heaven Hill a number of times, once as part of a private tour, and I think this new half-day tour will be similar. You will not be disappointed. This is a great distillery, and even if you won't see all aspects (the distillery itself is in Louisville - unless the tour will go there) you will learn a great deal about bourbon and its traditions. Don't miss it.

Not sure about that, Parker's Heritage and some other rarities from HH are. They do a great tasting on a counter partly built from old cypress wood (from vats). Also, there is in effect a museum there of whiskey history (old bottles, pictorials and narratives) and a nice shop. They have it all.

I haven't heard about this half-day tour. Make sure it's actually being offered by Heaven Hill and not by some tour operator who is going to charge you $50 and just drive you over to Heaven Hill for their free tour.

It's pretty hard to imagine what they could do in a half day in Bardstown and it's hard to imagine they could hit both Bardstown and Louisville in a half day, since the drive back and forth would eat up about 90 minutes.

Some people may not know this, and they don't advertise it, but they will give tours of the distillery in Louisville (i.e., the Bernheim Production Facility) by request to pretty much anyone who asks, if you make the inquiry well in advance. Craig Beam might even be your tour guide.

gillmang you have been on their tour before do you think this is worth the 50 bucks?

also i am going to DC this coming weekend and i was wondering if anyone knows of a liquor store there that is head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to bourbonthe reason i ask is i live in VA and the ABC stores don't always carry everything like 4 roses. i am dieing to try it after i have seen all of the positive feed back it has gotten on here

Lynne is a wonderfull person and actually Scottish, not Irish. Heaven Hill hired her away from one of the Scotch distilleries visitor's centers and did very well by doing so. I would say that it would be a very good tour for $50.00.

Having looked at the web site (see Independent's link above), I have a better idea what this is. Although they call it, "a half day experience at Bardstown’s finest Bourbon Distillery," the distillery isn't included, unless they intend to take you over to Tom Moore, (the only distillery in Bardstown). They say, or rather quote Lynne as saying, guests will "see the entire operation here in Bardstown," i.e., no distillery.

They also allude to the fact that the old pre-BHC tour included the dump room and bottling line, although not the cistern room which was, then, across the road and down the hill at the distillery itself, and was never included in the public tour. The current cistern room (where barrels are filled) was built since Bernheim was acquired, so they can barrel in Bardstown rather than ship full barrels from Louisville. They have, according to the web site, also built a new dump room. They will also drive guests around the 50-acre property in the Heaven Hill Trolley.

Still, none of that takes much time. I suspect the heart of the tour is the educational seminar, which they mention but don't describe. Worth $50? I'm sure they'll give good value for the money, as that's a Heaven Hill hallmark, but visitors need to make sure they know what they're getting.

bourbonv wrote:Lynne is a wonderfull person and actually Scottish, not Irish. Heaven Hill hired her away from one of the Scotch distilleries visitor's centers and did very well by doing so. I would say that it would be a very good tour for $50.00.

i knew it was one of the two. she was a pleasure to speak to on the phone and very friendly

Come this time tomorrow I will be in Kentucky I can't tell you all how excited I am. It is like the first time I went to Disney world I have reviewed when all the distillerys give tours and punched their addresses in my GPS other then that I am going to see what's there. If there is a bar or something that made anyones trip before that much more rememberal let me know.

I am back from Kentucky and I had a great time while I was there. I was able to visit Jim beam heaven hill wild turkey and buffalo trace. I was there two full days and I found that if you are taking your time you can only really see two maybe three distillerys. But now I have something for the next trip. As for the heaven hills behind the scenes tour it was well worth the 50 bucks. We got to see every part of the operation at HH. After the tour we were treated to samples of Evan Williams SB, Elijah Craig SB 18 year old, henrey mckenna SB, Evan Williams 23 year old and parkers heritage. Lynne Grant was great, she was the best tour guide to have she knew everything about the history of HH and the day to day operations of the distillery. And the best part of the whole time at HH was that at the end of the tour and tasting Lynne told us because we were the first to take this tour it was free. All in all I had a great time in Kentcky and learned a lot I can't wait to go back. I did add a bunch of new bottles to my collection I will list what I brought back with me later because I am at work and there are to many to remember